WHAT DOES A CORPORATE COUNSEL DO?

Published: August 23, 2024 - The Corporate Counsel handles a wide range of legal tasks, including contract review, transactional due diligence, and litigation support to meet the company's specific needs. This role involves drafting, negotiating, and reviewing contracts across various sectors such as construction and professional services. Additionally, the Corporate Counsel identifies legal risks, ensures regulatory compliance, and offers strategic legal guidance to the organization's business units to minimize exposure and maintain governance standards.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Corporate Counsel

1. Senior Corporate Counsel Duties

  • Legal Advising: Provides legal advice directly to internal clients on commercial, corporate, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and antitrust law.
  • Agreement Negotiation: Participates with business partners in the drafting and negotiating of complex commercial agreements.
  • Management Reporting: Provides reporting to senior Law Department and company management on important issues and topics.
  • Legal Research: Performs and/or manages all levels of legal and factual research necessary to provide appropriate legal advice to clients.
  • Legal Strategy: Provides rational legal strategy to clients.
  • External Counsel Management: Manages external counsel and their budgets.
  • Legal Training: Provides any necessary legal training to clients.
  • System Development: Develops, implements, and maintains internal systems that promote both proficient and efficient service to internal clients.

2. Corporate Counsel Details

  • Agreement Drafting: Drafting and negotiating agreements in line with Cisco’s business strategy, policies, and practices.
  • Transaction Structuring: Structuring sales transactions/agreements following legal risk assessment.
  • Contract Negotiation: Leading, coordinating, and finalizing sales contract negotiations.
  • RFP Response: Responding to complex RFP/RFI/RFQs.
  • Policy Application: Consistently applying Cisco legal and business policies and practices to maintain the highest standards of corporate governance.
  • Information Management: Identifying and managing the flow of key information both up the management chain as well as across business clients.
  • Process Optimization: Leading efforts towards optimized processes.
  • Cross-functional Engagement: Engaging in cross-functional projects as a legal subject-matter expert.
  • Presentation Development: Developing and delivering presentations/legal trainings.

3. Corporate Counsel Responsibilities

  • Contract Negotiation: Draft, review, edit, and negotiate customer contracts and related documents to facilitate the sale/licensing of RealPage’s products and services to customers.
  • Form Creation: Create new forms, and revise existing forms, of customer contracts to support consistent expansion of products and services and to promote process innovation and efficiency.
  • Department Liaison: Liaise directly between the Sales and Legal Departments to manage, facilitate, track, and ensure efficient processing of a large volume of customer contracts.
  • Legal Advising: Provide legal advice to senior management, and serve as point person with the Legal Department, for customer contract-related issues and questions.
  • M&A Support: Perform customer contract-related diligence in support of RealPage’s M&A activity.
  • SME on Contracts: Serve as RealPage’s subject matter expert, within the Legal Department, relating to the Company’s customer contract lifecycle management tools and processes.
  • Project Support: Support projects in a wide range of subject matter areas, including broadband deployment and infrastructure reform, broadband mapping, consumer and public safety issues, cybersecurity, net neutrality, privacy, content regulation, universal service, and spectrum licensing and regulation.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Collaborate with colleagues on the state regulatory, technology policy, and federal and state legislative teams on various telecommunications topics.
  • Legal Drafting: Conduct legal research and writing, draft rulemaking, adjudicatory, and transaction-related filings for submission to the FCC, NTIA, and other federal agencies, prepare briefings and provide policy recommendations to internal business clients.

4. Corporate Counsel Accountabilities

  • Generalist Support: Corporate generalist functions such as contract review, litigation support, transactional due diligence, and other matters based on the Company's needs.
  • Contract Management: Review, negotiate, and draft contracts across a variety of business functions including construction subcontractor agreements, professional services and supplier agreements, NDAs, and other contracts.
  • Communication Drafting: Draft and review company communications.
  • Litigation Support: Provide litigation support, which includes interfacing with and supervising outside counsel to ensure the highest quality of legal support at competitive cost.
  • Risk Management: Identify legal risks for the Company and provide solutions for limiting exposure.
  • Legal Analysis: Provide legal analysis of applicable laws, regulations, and industry guidance that impact the Company.
  • Business Support: Provide responsive and effective legal support and guidance to the Company's business units.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Provide guidance on employment labor matters, insurance, and regulatory compliance matters.
  • In-House Legal Services: Provide other in-house legal services.

5. Corporate Counsel Functions

  • IT Contract Negotiation: Negotiate and draft a wide variety of commercial agreements with an emphasis on information technology and licensing and redistribution of CAS intellectual property assets.
  • International Contracting: Negotiate and draft a variety of domestic and international agreements such as services statements of work, software and hardware license agreements, partnership agreements, content acquisition and distribution agreements, confidentiality agreements, contractor and consulting agreements, and other general business contracts.
  • Strategic Legal Leadership: Serve as the legal lead for structuring and negotiating strategic collaborations and partnerships between CAS and other organizations.
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work cross-functionally with business clients to draft contract terms, provide business-focused solutions, and ensure agreements reflect strategic goals and mitigate risk for CAS.
  • Relationship Building: Build relationships with executives, project teams, and peers across CAS.
  • Market Understanding: Develop a thorough understanding of the CAS portfolio of products and services and its customers, market, and competitors.
  • Contract Standardization: Assist in developing the Company’s set of standard contracts.
  • Contract Management: Draft, negotiate, and manage a variety of contracts (i.e., software end-user subscription, SaaS, NDA, statements of work, professional services, vendor, reseller, and distributor).
  • Contract Compliance: Ensure all contracts are executed in accordance with corporate guidelines.